An innovative and environmentally friendly carwash in Ahlen
Jobst Friedrich Münter operates one of the most innovative and environmentally friendly car washes of its kind in Münsterland. Carwash Ahlen is accommodated in a new building with a carwash bay 56 metres in length where the most efficient and futureproof car wash technology is planned.
MINDA’s challenge was to install reliable machinery that could keep pace with the automotive industry’s technologies in tomorrow’s world too. Ever more frequently, car washes are being used by vehicles whose complex driver assistance systems, such as the automatically applied handbrake, the hill-start assistant or electronic differentials, cause downtime or, in the worst-case scenario, accidents and damage to the machinery.
MINDA has had years of experience from a number of automotive industry projects and had already come across these challenges. The solution was to fit a dual track conveyor with chains of plastic modules.
The arguments in favour of the solution, combined with the systems that had already gained a good track record in the automotive industry, quickly persuaded Jobst Münter to pick a dual track conveyor with chains of plastic modules. In the end, he ordered a conveyor 42 metres in length and was delighted to be able to rely on the trust placed in MINDA from the outset. From the initial, detailed planning phase, involving liaison with the customer and car wash technology supplier, to the design and implementation of special customer requirements, the system was installed and commissioned on schedule. Jobst Münter comments that the concept of the dual track conveyor is very popular with customers who previously felt nervous about using a car wash or whose cars come with complex driver assistance systems and, of course, word quickly gets around about how good the system is.
Even after commissioning and getting the system up and running, the two companies will continue to collaborate. MINDA is still in contact with the Carwash Ahlen team in order to tweak the conveyor’s performance to meet new challenges.
As a result, the dual track conveyor has become a part of car washes too, as new conveyors in Norway at diveIn Carwash near Trondheim, at Fahrzeugpflege Wiehl near Gummersbach and in Taunusstrasse in Stockstadt demonstrate.